Challenge

Not being able to create reports from Microsoft Dynamics NAV has always been a struggle for users at BPL Plasma, a life sciences company that collects and sells plasma.

Although most users were familiar and proficient with Excel, they lacked the necessary development skills in Dynamics NAV and were building cumbersome reports using exported data, which required copying, pasting, and then having to rebuild those reports any time they wanted an update or rendition.

Determined to make this process easier for his team, remove the bottleneck in IT, and cut down on development time, Sr. NAV Analyst, Val Gameiro, recommended Jet Reports, a fast, flexible reporting solution designed for Dynamics NAV that runs directly inside Excel.

Solution

It used to take a minimum of 3 days for a developer at BPL to produce a report using SQL Server Reporting Services (SSRS), by the time changes and approvals had been made. By implementing Jet Reports, this process now only takes a few minutes.

A Jet Designer in the Accounting or Cost Analysis department can now create a report in minutes, and then send it to a Viewer who can refresh it on demand and change filters to meet their needs. By encouraging staff to create their own reports in Excel, a tool they are already familiar with, users are more productive than ever – including developers like Val.

“By making our staff self-sufficient, we’ve been able to free up a lot of our own time to focus on other critical development areas of the business,” explains Val. “I can make a report in SSRS but in Jet Reports it’s so much easier, and a huge time-saver.”